628 research outputs found
Happiness, environmental protection and market economy
The manufacturing sector is leaving the West for Asiaâs low wages and good working culture. Europe would be better off keeping these manufacturing activities, slowing down wage inflation and what is more, letting a young, cheaper workforce from the East settle down within their borders. This would aid in preserving the diverse economic structure which has been characteristic for Europe.Beside the economic growth there are two more concepts which have turned into the âholy cowsâ of economics during the last fifty years. One is the need to constantly improve labor productivity and the other is increasing competitiveness of nations. The high labor productivity of some countries, induces severe unemployment in the globalized world. In the other hand it is high time we understood that it is not competition, but cooperation that brings more happiness to humanity.Should we still opt for âhappinessâ and âsanityâ, it is quite obvious that we all should, in economistsâ terms, define our individual welfare functions corresponding to our own set of values, staying free from the influence of media, advertisements and fashion. The cornerstone to all this is the intelligent citizen who prefers local goods and services
Firms' Main Market, Human Capital and Wages
Recent international trade literature emphasizes two features in characterizing the current patterns of trade: efficiency heterogeneity at the firm level and quality differentiation. This paper explores human capital and wage differences across firms in that context. We build a partial equilibrium model predicting that firms selling in more-remote markets employ higher human capital and pay higher wages to employees within each education group. The channel linking these variables is firmsâ endogenous choice of quality. Predictions are tested using Spanish employer-employee matched data that classify firms according to four main destination markets: local, national, European Union, and rest of the World. Employeesâ average education is increasing in the remoteness of firmâs main output market. Marketâdestination wage premia are large, increasing in the remoteness of the market, and increasing in individual education. These results suggest that increasing globalization may play a significant role in raising wage inequality within and across education groups
Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars III: First Results from the Grid Giant Star Survey and Discovery of a Possible Nearby Sagittarius Tidal Structure in Virgo
We describe first results of a spectroscopic probe of selected fields from
the Grid Giant Star Survey. Multifiber spectroscopy of several hundred stars in
a strip of eleven fields along delta approximately -17^{circ}, in the range 12
<~ alpha <~ 17 hours, reveals a group of 8 giants that have kinematical
characteristics differing from the main field population, but that as a group
maintain coherent, smoothly varying distances and radial velocities with
position across the fields. Moreover, these stars have roughly the same
abundance, according to their MgH+Mgb absorption line strengths. Photometric
parallaxes place these stars in a semi-loop structure, arcing in a contiguous
distribution between 5.7 and 7.9 kpc from the Galactic center. The spatial,
kinematical, and abundance coherence of these stars suggests that they are part
of a diffuse stream of tidal debris, and one roughly consistent with a wrapped,
leading tidal arm of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy.Comment: 8 pages including 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
A Two Micron All-Sky Survey View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: II. Swope Telescope Spectroscopy of M Giant Stars in the Dynamically Cold Sagittarius Tidal Stream
We present moderate resolution (~6 km/s) spectroscopy of 284 M giant
candidates selected from the Two Micron All Sky Survey photometry. Radial
velocities (RVs) are presented for stars mainly in the south, with a number
having positions consistent with association to the trailing tidal tail of the
Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy. The latter show a clear RV trend with orbital
longitude, as expected from models of the orbit and destruction of Sgr. A
minimum 8 kpc width of the trailing stream about the Sgr orbital midplane is
implied by verified RV members. The coldness of this stream (dispersion ~10
km/s) provides upper limits on the combined contributions of stream heating by
a lumpy Galactic halo and the intrinsic dispersion of released stars, which is
a function of the Sgr core mass. The Sgr trailing arm is consistent with a
Galactic halo containing one dominant, LMC-like lump, however some lumpier
halos are not ruled out. An upper limit to the total M/L of the Sgr core is 21
in solar units. A second structure that roughly mimics expectations for
wrapped, leading Sgr arm debris crosses the trailing arm in the Southern
Hemisphere; however, this may also be an unrelated tidal feature. Among the <13
kpc M giants toward the South Galactic Pole are some with large RVs that
identify them as halo stars, perhaps part of the Sgr leading arm near the Sun.
The positions and RVs of Southern Hemisphere M giants are compared with those
of southern globular clusters potentially stripped from the Sgr system and
support for association of Pal 2 and Pal 12 with Sgr debris is found. Our
discussion includes description of a masked-filtered cross-correlation
methodology that achieves better than 1/20 of a resolution element RVs in
moderate resolution spectra.Comment: 41 pages, 6 figures, Astronomical Journal, in press (submitted Nov.
24, 2003; tentatively scheduled for July 2004 issue
Organization of Multinational Activities and Ownership Structure
We develop a model in which multinational investors decide about the modes of organization, the locations of production, and the markets to be served. Foreign investments are driven by market-seeking and cost-reducing motives. We further assume that investors face costs of control that vary among sectors and increase in distance. The results show that (i) production intensive sectors are more likely to operate a foreign business independent of the investment motive, (ii) that distance may have a non-monotonous effect on the likelihood of horizontal investments, and (iii) that globalization, if understood as reducing distance, leads to more integration
The GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey. VI. Second Data Release and Updated Gas Fraction Scaling Relations
We present the second data release from the GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey (GASS),
an ongoing large Arecibo program to measure the HI properties for an unbiased
sample of ~1000 galaxies with stellar masses greater than 10^10 Msun and
redshifts 0.025<z<0.05. GASS targets are selected from the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) imaging
surveys, and are observed until detected or until a gas mass fraction limit of
a few per cent is reached. This second data installment includes new Arecibo
observations of 240 galaxies, and marks the 50% of the complete survey. We
present catalogs of the HI, optical and ultraviolet parameters for these
galaxies, and their HI-line profiles. Having more than doubled the size of the
sample since the first data release, we also revisit the main scaling relations
of the HI mass fraction with galaxy stellar mass, stellar mass surface density,
concentration index, and NUV-r color, as well as the gas fraction plane
introduced in our earlier work.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A. Version with
complete Appendix A available at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/GASS/pubs.php
. GASS released data can be found at
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/GASS/data.ph
The Origins of the Circumgalactic Medium in the FIRE Simulations
We use a particle tracking analysis to study the origins of the
circumgalactic medium (CGM), separating it into (1) accretion from the
intergalactic medium (IGM), (2) wind from the central galaxy, and (3) gas
ejected from other galaxies. Our sample consists of 21 FIRE-2 simulations,
spanning the halo mass range log(Mh/Msun) ~ 10-12 , and we focus on z=0.25 and
z=2. Owing to strong stellar feedback, only ~L* halos retain a baryon mass
>~50% of their cosmic budget. Metals are more efficiently retained by halos,
with a retention fraction >~50%. Across all masses and redshifts analyzed >~60%
of the CGM mass originates as IGM accretion (some of which is associated with
infalling halos). Overall, the second most important contribution is wind from
the central galaxy, though gas ejected or stripped from satellites can
contribute a comparable mass in ~L* halos. Gas can persist in the CGM for
billions of years, resulting in well-mixed halo gas. Sight lines through the
CGM are therefore likely to intersect gas of multiple origins. For low-redshift
~L* halos, cool gas (T<10^4.7 K) is distributed on average preferentially along
the galaxy plane, however with strong halo-to-halo variability. The metallicity
of IGM accretion is systematically lower than the metallicity of winds
(typically by >~1 dex), although CGM and IGM metallicities depend significantly
on the treatment of subgrid metal diffusion. Our results highlight the multiple
physical mechanisms that contribute to the CGM and will inform observational
efforts to develop a cohesive picture.Comment: 23 pages, 22 figures. Minor revisions from previous version. Online
interactive visualizations available at zhafen.github.io/CGM-origins and
zhafen.github.io/CGM-origins-pathline
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